PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy Curriculum

Last updated October 24, 2012

Preparation and Prerequisites

Admitted students will have a B.S. or, preferably, an M.S. degree in one or more fields related to social sciences, public policy, or the environment. Assuming an M.S. degree in environmental policy or the social dimensions of environmental issues, the student coursework requirement would take 2 years. If students do not have an M.S. degree in this field they would be expected to take 3 years of courses. These would include courses in research methods, research design, policy theory, advanced environmental policy analysis, and three courses in a specialty area preparing them for their dissertation focus. All students must meet the prerequisite of at least one microeconomics and one statistics course.

Once admitted to the Ph.D. program, students must:

• Complete 60 credits of coursework past their B.S. undergraduate degree. Thirty credits may come from their Masters degree work.
• Pass a written qualifying examination (it may also be oral at the discretion of the student's Committee chair) following completion of all coursework of their knowledge in 3 selected sub-fields within environmental and energy policy, and the subject area of the dissertation. This will usually take place early in the 3rd year of study in the Ph.D. program, though the examination can be held sooner for an especially advanced student. This examination will be administered by a committee of 4 faculty members, at least one of who will be from outside the Department of Social Sciences. After the student passes the qualifying examination, she or he will then be given an oral research proposal examination (it may also be written at the discretion of the student's Committee chair), which will include a public presentation of the research proposal.
• Conduct significant research supporting some aspect of a societal or organizational choice related to an environmentally related or energy policy or program.
• Write and defend a dissertation as a final product.

Requirements and Policies

• Advisory Committee
• Qualifying (Comprehensive) Examination
• Research Proposal (Candidacy) Examination
• Dissertation
• Final Oral Examination (Dissertation Defense)

READ PhD Program Guidance (PDF)

Coursework

The required coursework must satisfy the following:

Core courses (12 credits)

All students will be required to take the following:

SS 5300 Environmental and Energy Policy (3 credits)
SS 5400 Sociology of the Environment (3 credits)
SS 5550 Global Environmental History (3 credits)
SS 5310 Ecological Economics (3 credits) or EC 5650 Environmental Economics (3 credits)

Research Design and Methods courses (10-11 credits)

Students will be required to take the following two courses (additional methods courses can be taken to fit each student's research needs):

SS 6002 Research Design (3 credits)
SS 5001 Advanced Social Science Methods (4 credits)

In addition, all students will also be required to take one of the following two statistics courses:

EC 4200 Econometrics (3 credits)
MA 5701 Statistical Methods (3 credits)

Concentration courses (9 credits)

Students must choose at least three courses from one policy area: a) Energy Policy; b) Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; and c) Sustainable Development.

a. Energy Policy

SS 6100 Advanced Seminar in Energy and Climate Policy
SS 5318 Public Sector Management (3 credits)
EC 5620 Energy Economics
MEEM 4200 Principles of Energy Conversion
MEEM 5220 Fuel Cell Technology
MET 4900 Alternative Energy Systems
EE 5200 Advanced Methods in Power Systems
EE 5260 Wind Power
EE 5490 Solar Photovoltaic Technology

b. Environmental and Natural Resources Policy

SS/FW 5111 Advanced Natural Resource Policy
SS 5318 Public Sector Management (3 credits)
SS 5635 Environmental Diplomacy and Law
SS 4200 Environmental Anthropology
SS 5315 Population and the Environment
SS 5530 Deindustrialization and Urban Environments
FW 4380 Landscape Ecology
EC 5640 Natural Resource Economics
EC 5650 Environmental Economics (only counts if not also taken as a Core Course above)
FW 5770 Rural Community Development Planning and Analysis
BL 5120 Environmental Remediation and Toxicology
SSE/CE 4750 Risk Analysis
UN 5100 Water Resource Colloquium

c. Sustainable Development

SS 4390 Seminar in Sustainability Issues
SS 5530 Deindustrialization and Urban Environments
SS 5313 Sustainability Science, Policy and Assessment
SS 5318 Public Sector Management (3 credits)
SS 5315 Population and the Environment
EC 5640 Natural Resource Economics
ENG/SS 5510 Sustainable Futures I
ENG/SS 5520 Sustainable Futures II
ENG/SS 5530 Graduate Colloquium in Sustainability
FW 5180 Conservation Ethics
FW 5770 Rural Community Development Planning and Analysis
BA 5760 Corporate Social Responsibility & Business Ethics
UN 5100 Water Resource Colloquium
MGT 4800 Ecological Sustainability and Organizations

Unspecified credits (28-29 credits)

These credits include reading courses, research credits (between 12-18 credits), and any courses related to the student's research interests.